LEGO Rock Band Update

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Rock out with your block out.

By Daemon Hatfield

There have already been numerous music games released this year, but we're not done yet. Among others, LEGO Rock Band is still on the way to welcome younger gamers into the fold. Harmonix and Warner Bros. brought the game by the IGN office recently to show us how it's coming together and we can definitely see this one being a hit with the younger crowd. Whereas Rock Band's usual tag line is "Start a band, rock the world," LEGO Rock Band's catch phrase is "Build a band and rock the universe."

The familiar Rock Band art style in the menus has been LEGOized so that it retains the same feel but is now built with bricks. The Rock Band 2 intro with the crazy car ride has also been given the LEGO treatment to open the game.

Among the new features for this version will be an "auto kick drum" mode that relieves players of the need to stomp the kick pedal. Harmonix intends this mode to be used by newcomers, short kids who have trouble reaching the pedal, or handicapped gamers.

Just as you could with Rock Band 2 you'll be able to export the "overwhelming majority" of LEGO Rock Band tracks to your hard drive. It's possible the full track list will be exportable in the end, but Harmonix is still waiting on a couple licenses from the record companies. The nominal one-time export fee will be a little higher than the $5 it cost last time. This feature will only be available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game.

The developer worked with MTV to create a filter that will auto-import just the kid-friendly songs from your library and when visiting the in-game store you'll only see said safe tracks. LEGO Rock Band will be compatible with some of your existing downloaded songs. This is a family game and the developers didn't feel it appropriate to have LEGO characters singing "Hammer Smashed Face" by Cannibal Corpse (as much as this writer would like to do just that).

Don't expect to see characters from other LEGO games like Han Solo or Indiana Jones here. After licensing the dozens of songs for the track list there would have been too much paper work involved getting additional licenses from LucasFilm.

If Rock Band on "easy" mode is still too difficult for you, you can now try "super easy." Here it makes no difference which color fret or drum pad you hit, you just need to hit them in time with the music. Expert mode won't be any easier, though, Harmonix says. No worries, because you cannot fail in LEGO Rock Band. As you play you earn studs and if you start to suck the only penalty is you'll just lose studs. You'll even get a chance to earn them back before the end of the song.

Certain songs also have short versions for restless kids or adults with short attention spans. "Every Little Thing She Does" by The Police has a long outro, for example. By turning on the short version you can skip all the jamming and riffing that goes on for a bit towards the end. "Ghostbusters" and "The Final Countdown" will also have short versions.

LEGO Rock Band won't be coming with any instruments, although it is compatible with all Rock Band and Guitar Hero controllers.

Here's the complete track list:

All American Rejects - "Swing, Swing"

The Automatic - "Monster"

Blink-182 - "Aliens Exist"

Blur - "Song 2"

Bon Jovi - "You Give Love a Bad Name"

Boys like Girls - "Thunder"

Bryan Adams - "Summer of 69"

Carl Douglas - "Kung Fu Fighting"

The Coral - "Dreaming of You"

Counting Crows - "Accidentally in Love"

David Bowie - "Let's Dance"

Elton John - "Crocodile Rock"

Europe - "The Final Countdown"

Everlife - "Real Wild Child"

Foo Fighters - "Breakout"

Good Charlotte - "Girls & Boys"

The Hives - "Tick Tick Boom!"

Iggy Pop - "The Passenger"

Incubus - "Dig"

Jackson 5 - "I Want You Back"

Jimi Hendrix - "Fire"

Kaiser Chiefs - "Ruby"

Katrina & The Waves - "Walking on Sunshine"

The Kooks - "Naïve"

KoRn - "Word Up!"

KT Tunstall - "Suddenly I See"

Lostprophets - "Rooftops"

P!NK - "So What"

The Police - "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"

The Primitives - "Crash"

Queen - "We Are The Champions"

Queen - "We Will Rock You"

Rascal Flatts - "Life is a Highway"

Ray Parker Jr. - "Ghostbusters"

Razorlight - "Stumble and Fall"

Spin Doctors - "Two Princes"

Spinal Tap - "Short & Sweet"

Steve Harly - "Make Me Smile"

Sum 41 - "In Too Deep"

Supergrass - "Grace"

Tom Petty - "Free Fallin"

T-Rex - "Ride a White Swan"

Vampire Weekend - "A-Punk"

We the Kings - "Check Yes Juliet"

The Zutons - "Valerie"

Big ups for including "Ghostbusters." Big downs for including a country cover of "Life is a Highway."